Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs | Building a Powerful Connection with Your Audience

To build a great business, you have to connect with the people who need you. For most entrepreneurs, that means building a solid personal brand, since it’s you they connect with first. It is of vital importance that the personal brand you build is authentic to you, not what someone else says you should be. Authenticity is everything in a personal brand because it resonates on a deeper level. We can all tell when someone isn’t authentic, and when it comes to building your business, you must fully be you, to do your best work and make your greatest impact. 

There are steps to take to ensure you have a personal brand that connects with your audience in a way that makes them want to work with you.

Why is a personal brand important?

Your personal brand really is the foundation of your business and it goes deeper than just the services or products you offer. 

A personal brand, at its most basic level, is how people think of you, and what they say about you and the work you do. If your brand conveys that you are confident, capable, and trustworthy, they are likely to work with you or recommend you to others, which is why it is very important to consider your personal brand and the messages it conveys.

How do you build your personal brand?

While many things go into brand building, there are three key things that every person must get very clear about when it comes to their personal brand. 

#1 Your Story

Your story and the experiences you have had in your lifetime have brought you to where you are today. They are the reason you are doing what you are doing now. Realistically, you could have chosen a number of areas to work in, but you are where you are for a reason. That reason is going to connect you to the people who want to travel the same path as you, or to those who have had similar experiences, and are perhaps, going through challenges you have already faced.

We make stronger connections with people who have struggled to get where they are, because it is inspiring. It gives us hope to know we are not alone, and that even though it might be difficult in the moment, there really is a way to reach the success we crave, with specific steps to take to get past the blocks that might be in the way.  

Take the time to consider all the aspects of your story, how it brought you to where you are, the things you have had to face on your journey, and why your journey has made you a stronger and more capable person today. 

#2 Your Values

Your values are a huge part of your personal brand because they greatly impact the way you show up in the world. You may not realize it, but your values play a large part in the decisions you make. When you are in alignment with your values, you will feel great. When you are not, things will not feel right to you. 

When you know your values, you can make decisions about your personal brand and your business based on them. This will keep you aligned with who you truly are at the core, strengthening your personal brand. 

Additionally, the people who have similar values will feel more attracted to you, because you have a mutual understanding from the start, creating a deeper and stronger connection. That kind of connection will help you do powerful work together. 

#3 Your Unique Selling Point

Your personal brand, as well as your business brand, will have a key area where you excel in a way that no one else does. That thing that only you can do is your Unique Selling Point (USP). 

It is a combination of your skills, talents and personal gifts, as well as your style of customer service, patented products or proprietary processes. 

Your USP fills a gap in the market that no one else can fill, in the way that you do it. While you may have many areas where you excel, it is important to focus in on the one thing that makes the biggest difference to your clients. They want to know that you can help them, and that you, exclusively, will deliver what they want. 

The clearer and more decisive your USP is, the easier it will be for your client to say, “I need that!”

What impacts your personal brand?

The answer to that is just about everything! 

It’s important to understand people are always watching to make sure that what you say and do, aligns with who you say you are. It is what builds your brand’s reputation. Your appearance, skills, personality, confidence level and so on, all say something about you. If everything is not in alignment with your personal brand, you will have a brand-break, which will cause doubt.

For example, if you are an executive coach and you arrive at an event looking dishevelled, disorganized and stressed out, that sends a message. Then the question you must ask is, will the people I want to help identify with me and the message I am sending in this moment? 

This is why I say, just about everything impacts your brand. We are all constantly sending signals about who we are and how we show up in the world. To have a top-level personal brand, you must ensure that everything you say and do aligns seamlessly with it. 

Personal branding for entrepreneurs is a key part of business building. The stronger your personal brand is, and the more it is aligned with the person you authentically are, the more powerful the connection will be with your audience. That is going to take you to higher and higher levels of success. 

If you would like to learn more about how to Grow Your Personal Brand, CLICK HERE to listen to my podcast with Jay Jay. He is the founder of Ace of Spades, a social media and PR agency that helps both businesses and personal brands become known as credible experts in their industry.